Venture Guides · Nishkam

Email Triage

Monday September 14 2026
Last 7 days (Sep 7 - Sep 14)
188 emails reviewed
Current — Sep 14
Prior — Sep 11
Urgent + Important
Do now
5
Review Assail REV.02 before today's weekly
Assail · Alissa Knight
Today
New
Alissa sent a new REV.02 of the Series A deck last night (Sep 13, 11:05pm) saying she's applied all of Nishkam and Ian's comments/suggestions and is looking for Ian's input next. This lands right before today's Assail Weekly Meeting (1pm ET, Zoom + Blue Conference Room) — worth a quick look before that call so any last feedback can be raised live.
Bulkhead follow-up call — 9:30am ET
Bulkhead · Yash Tulsani / Dave / Holzman
Today
Carried
The Bulkhead/VentureGuides follow-up (Yash, Jo, Ali, Vipul all accepted) is on for 9:30am ET today — Banff Conference Room. This is the same live time-sensitive raise (unsigned term sheet, $8-10M, no institutional money yet) that had Holzman pushing back hard on valuation/traction Sep 10; Nishkam defended the deal and the follow-up got scheduled. Today's call is where that gets resolved one way or another.
Ray Unique/Defensibility pitch — feedback due today
Ray Security · Holzman / Ariel Zamir
Today
Deal
Holzman sent his take on Ray's Unique/Defensibility positioning Sep 12 10:51pm ('Ray Security secures your data from agents and humans, preventing unauthorized access and leaks') and asked Ariel/Eric/Dekel to weigh in 'by Monday' — that's today. Ariel replied same night with a first pass of comments (red + PPT comments) but the group hasn't converged. Nishkam is cc'd throughout and this is due today.
Respond to Pandorian founder pushback
Pandorian · Daniel Avital
11d
Carried
Nishkam passed on Pandorian Sep 3 (buyer/urgency conviction concerns after the Pendo budget got pulled). Daniel Avital replied same day with substantive counter-context (Pendo deal was fully agreed pre-budget-cut; NICE, 10x larger, agreed terms in under 3 months and is already onboarding ahead of an Oct 1 deadline), then forwarded the NICE onboarding Confluence page. Still unanswered — now 11 days. Decide whether this reopens or the pass holds.
TiE / Alok relationship — standing watch
TiE Boston · Alok Prasad
Recurring
Deal
Standing rule: TiE and Alok threads always surface in Q1 until further notice. TiECon East judging officially closed Sep 10 with 95 applications received (exceeding the goal of 90) per the Sep 12 judging-update thread from Alok/Baldev/Nachi — a record number. TiECon sponsorship ask (Jenny) still has no reply found. Alok weekly cadence continues on calendar Sep 16/23.
Important · Not Urgent
Schedule time
4
SpartanX diligence deck and Ophir call today
SpartanX · Diego Spahn / Erik Hardy / Anton
Today
Portfolio
Very active week: Nishkam sent the '[VG] - SpartanX Diligence - v1 - Sep 2026.pptx' deck to Anton Sep 12; Diego sent a Tech overview + Market overview (Gartner comparison) Sep 13 11:39pm, Erik replied Sep 14 8:27am thanking Diego. Capital raise numbers also discussed with Anton/Erik/Andy (bottoms-up build for the higher $6M/2027, $20M/2028 revenue targets). SpartanX <> Ophir investor call is today 10:30am ET and the Diego/Erik + Nishkam call is Sep 16.
Compyl — Bridgewater win, board prep Sep 22
Compyl · Stas / Matt (Contour) / Todd
Sep 12
Portfolio
Matt (Contour Ventures) congratulated the team Sep 12 on landing Bridgewater — 'way to bring this one home Adam and team!' — building on the product-gap fixes Corey flagged the prior week. Compyl board meeting confirmed for Sep 22, 1-3pm ET, with further board dates already on calendar through Dec. Weekly Compyl check-in is Sep 16.
Genesis post-mortem — structure and slides
Genesis · Holzman
Sep 12-13
New
Nishkam sent Holzman a proposed structure for the Genesis post-mortem Sep 12 10:33pm — a log of all 142 activities between April and August (date, who was invited, theme), organized by theme rather than as a raw activity dump, plus a self-critical read on the pipe. Holzman replied Sep 13 12:48am liking the approach but flagged he wants the 142 activities better organized before building slides; Nishkam responded 1:58am agreeing to present by theme. Next step: start building slides once Holzman reviews the outline doc.
DeepTrust co-founder call — 5:30pm ET
DeepTrust · Aman Ibrahim / Noah Kjos
Today
Carried
The Aman, Noah, Dave and Nishkam call is on calendar for today, 5:30-6pm ET. Re-engagement, not a brand-new name — prior VG contact exists from an April 2025 RSA meeting with co-founder Noah Kjos. Sage and Dave are also looped in.
Urgent · Not Important
Delegate or handle fast
3
Send Ariel the MSFT credit code
Ray Security · Ariel Zamir
9d
Carried
Simple admin ask sitting unanswered since Sep 5 — Ariel asked whether the MSFT credit code was sent; still no visible reply, now 9 days.
Reply to Palash on Pepper intro
Palash Soni · Pepper (Anirudh)
6d
Carried
Palash Soni forwarded a 'Pepper Financing Opportunity' intro Sep 8, vouching for founder Anirudh ('top tier,' traction on GEO/AEO tailwinds). Still no visible reply — now 6 days. Quick yes/no/pass reply needed.
Triage AccuKnox Series A inbound
AccuKnox · unread
Today
New
Cold inbound Sep 13 5:35pm from AccuKnox (n@accuknox.com) pitching a Zero Trust AI / Agentic AI Security Series A discussion, addressed to Will and Nishkam, unread. Quick triage needed — is this worth a first call.
Neither
Ignore / delete
0
No items
Waiting on
4
Blyoum — would love your take
Blyoum · sent to Ian
7d
Sent Sep 7 asking Ian for his take on the Blyoum deck (governed reasoning layer for financial services). No reply visible through Sep 14, now 7 days. Ian was traveling, said back Sep 14 per an unrelated auto-reply thread — worth a nudge now that he should be back.
Blyoum — awaiting Aline on scheduling
Blyoum · sent to Aline Oliveira
4d
Nishkam replied to Aline (Blyoum) Sep 10 offering a 30-min chat 'tomorrow' after looping in the resources/data team. No reply from Aline visible through Sep 14, now 4 days.
RE: Potential Investors — strategics list
Internal · SilverTech / Ehud Hai / Planven
11d
Sent internally listing potential investors/strategics (SilverTech, Ehud Hai's fund, Planven). No visible reply thread through Sep 14, now over a week out — carried without a new sighting this window.
Clarity POV Go/No-Go — awaiting reply
Clarity · sent to Holzman
11d
Sent to Holzman raising Alexis's frustration about POV qualification and lost deals, recommending alignment on go/no-go criteria. No reply visible through Sep 14 — carried without a new sighting this window.
Personal
0
Patterns this session
0
No feedback to process this run — Supabase feedback field was empty for the prior (Sep 11) session.
exception
Bulkhead and Assail both moved into Q1 as today's-meeting-prep items — Bulkhead follow-up call 9:30am ET, Assail weekly 1pm ET with a fresh REV.02 deck that landed last night.
exception
New: Ray Security Unique/Defensibility pitch feedback is due today per Holzman's own deadline ('please spend time on this by Monday') — added to Q1.
exception
New: Genesis post-mortem structure work is active — Nishkam and Holzman are now drafting how to present 142 logged activities by theme. First real forward motion on the buyback close-out watch since it opened.
exception
RailXia Sep 23 deep dive is now confirmed on calendar (accepted Sep 11) — dropped from the matrix since there's nothing left to decide this window.
exception
Refold deck review dropped — no new activity since Sep 10/11, nothing pending.
exception
New Waiting On item: Blyoum/Aline scheduling reply (Nishkam proposed a 30-min chat Sep 10, no reply from Aline in 4 days) — distinct from the older Blyoum/Ian review item.
exception
New First Call / inbound: AccuKnox (Zero Trust AI, Series A) — cold pitch Sep 13, unread, surfaced in Q3 as a quick triage rather than Q1/Q2 pending a decision on whether to take the call.
exception
Pandorian turndown pushback now 11 days unanswered (up from 8) — held as an escalated Q1 item, not auto-closing.
watch
Opsin, Overwatch, CEVM, Minimal, B&T/Project Maya, Chenna Vemula, and TieCon sponsorship signals all reconfirmed zero new genuine hits again this window — last-seen bumped, counts held, no promotion without Nishkam's explicit confirmation.
watch
Genesis buyback close-out watch reaches count 12, now with a genuine forward-motion signal (post-mortem structure work) rather than pure silence.
watch
Recurring Cadences rule checked: SpartanX (Ophir call today, Diego/Erik call Sep 16), Compyl (weekly Sep 16), Assail (weekly today), Ray (weekly Sep 15), Clarity (weekly Sep 16) all inside or approaching the 48-hour agenda window — no standing weekly agenda was missing an already-sent agenda this run, so no new 48-hour agenda task fires beyond what's already reflected above.
exception
First calls
1
AccuKnox
n@accuknox.com · via cold inbound
Zero Trust AI / Agentic AI Security, pitching a Series A discussion. Unread as of this run — see Q3 for the triage decision.
Today
New deals
9
Blyoum
Aline Oliveira · AI reasoning layer for financial services
Two open threads now — see Waiting On (Ian's review, and Aline's scheduling reply).
Carried
Zyras AI
Balaji Prasad
Quiet since the Sep 10 positioning call — no new activity this window.
Carried
Corsound AI
Arkady Krishtul
Quiet since the Sep 10 first call — no new activity this window.
Carried
Vigilent AI
Rohit Unnikrishnan
Call rescheduled to Mon Sep 21, 10:30am ET (accepted Sep 10).
Carried
Askeal
Roxane Suau
Quiet since the Sep 4 intro-call recap — no new activity this window.
Carried
Spikerz
Naveh Ben Dror
Founder re-sent the deck with 2 customer case studies Sep 13 (following up after the Sep 10 first call) — worth a read.
Sep 13
Divert
Mark
Quiet since Bear's Sep 10 post-call thank-you — no new activity this window.
Carried
Northstar Security
Amer Deeba / Ed
Bear's post-call note (Sep 9) said he and Nishkam both felt this is a "2" and wanted a follow-up conversation this week — no follow-up thread visible yet.
Carried
Chenna Vemula
Early founder exploring a raise
No new activity this window — signal held at count 3; still recommend Nishkam confirm whether this belongs in pipeline at all.
Carried
Turndowns
1
Pandorian
Daniel Avital
Turndown sent Sep 3; founder pushed back with substantive counter-context and a follow-up forward. Still unresolved after 11 days — see active Q1 item, not closing this session.
Contested
Events
3
Venture Guides Annual Investor Meeting
100 Causeway Street, Sky Lobby — 8th Floor
Tomorrow, Sep 15, 9:30am-1pm ET. A full week of dry runs and timing recaps (Sep 8-13) has been building to this — internal, not a triage action item, but the reason for this week's heavy prep traffic.
Sep 15
TiECon East 2026 Showcase & Awards — judge invite
Burlington Marriott · Oct 2
Judging closed Sep 10 with 95 applications received (exceeding the 90 goal). Distinct from the still-unresolved TieCon sponsorship ask (Jenny) — see Q1.
Oct 2
CISO dinner (VG-hosted)
Tied to Pandorian relationship
Still in planning per the Aug 28 Fathom recap — team wants a keynote speaker locked before building the event around their availability. No firm date yet this window.
Planning
Notes for next run
Q1 5
Q2 4
Q3 3
Waiting 4
Personal 0
Venture Guides · Monday September 14 2026